Fundsmith Equity won Money Observer's Best Large Global Growth Fund award in 2016. It was launched in 2010 by City veteran Terry Smith and in just over six years it has grown to more than £9 billion in size. His approach is to pick a small selection of shares and stick with them.

The fund currently holds 27 shares with over 60 per cent in the US market. He buys long-established firms with big brands and a high return on capital. He also favours businesses with advantages that are difficult to replicate.

Smith believes it is virtually impossible to predict which way stock markets will move, but that the strength of the companies the fund holds will allow them to continue to grow their intrinsic value.

He is scathing of other managers, and is sceptical when others talk about diversification and/or the belief that they can buy poor-quality companies when their fortunes and share prices are depressed and about to improve and sell them close to, or preferably just before, they turn down.

He says he cannot understand why other investors assume that it is better to be diversified across low-quality investments than to be concentrated in high-quality ones.

On market timing, he says the performance record of the vast majority of active managers would suggest that there are far more who think they can play the investment and business/economic cycle successfully and outperform, than can actually do so.

?A fund’s ongoing charges figure (OCF) is similar to the old-style total expense ratio. It reflects the annual charge to investors in the fund, in percentage terms, but does not include extra performance-related fees (where these are levied) or the fund’s trading expenses on its underlying investments.

1.05%

Fund size

£13,943m (£9,830m last year)

FE Risk score

?FE Risk Scores measure the riskiness of instruments relative to the FTSE 100 index of shares. Weekly volatility is measured over three years with recent behaviour counting more heavily than earlier behaviour. Cash-type investments will have scores close to zero. Funds will tend to have scores in the 0-150 range. The FTSE 100 is always scored at 100. There is no upper limit.

?Alpha is a measure of a fund's over- or under-performance by comparison to its benchmark. If the Alpha is 5, the fund has outperformed its benchmark by 5%; so the greater the Alpha, the greater the outperformance.

8.7

Beta

?Beta estimates a fund's volatility by comparison to that of its benchmark. A fund with a beta close to 1 means that the fund will move generally in line with the benchmark. Higher than 1 and the fund is more volatile than the benchmark and vice versa.

0.95

Sharpe

?This commonly-used measure calculates the level of return over and above the return of a notional risk-free investment, such as cash. The difference in returns is then divided by the fund's volatility. The resulting ratio is an indication of the amount of excess return generated per unit of risk.

1.45

Volatility

?Volatility (or standard deviation), when applied to an investment fund, expresses its risk. It shows how widely a range of returns varied from the fund's average return over a particular period. For example, if a fund had an average return of 5%, and its volatility was 15, this would mean that the range of its returns over the period had swung between +20% and -10%.

11.31

Tracking error

?This measures the standard deviation of a fund's excess returns over the returns of an index or benchmark portfolio. As such, it can be an indication of 'riskiness' in the manager's investment style. A Tracking Error below 2 suggests a passive approach. At 3 and above the the manager will be deploying a more active investment style.

6.16

Information ratio

?This is a useful risk-adjusted measure of actively managed fund performance. It is calculated by deducting the returns of the fund's benchmark from the fund's overall returns, then dividing the result by its tracking error. The higher the Information Ratio the better. It is generally considered that a figure of 0.5 reflects a good performance, 0.75 very good, and 1.00 outstanding.

1.28

R-Squared

?An indication of how closely correlated a fund is to an index or a benchmark. Values for R-Squared range between 0 and 1, with 0 indicating no correlation at all and 1 showing a perfect match. Values upwards of 0.7 suggest that the fund's behaviour is increasingly linked to its benchmark.

0.71

Price movement

52 week high371.17

52 week low314.68

Current bid price-

Current offer price-

Current mid price361.71

Region

1

USA

59.6%

2

UK

18.1%

3

Spain

5.6%

4

Denmark

4.9%

5

Money Market

4%

6

Finland

3.2%

7

Switzerland

2.4%

8

France

2.2%

Industry sector

1

Technology

29.2%

2

Consumer Staples

28.7%

3

Health Care

25.4%

4

Industrials

8.7%

5

Consumer Discretionary

4%

6

Money Market

4%

Asset type

1

US Equities

59.6%

2

UK Equities

18.1%

3

Spanish Equities

5.6%

4

Danish Equities

4.9%

5

Money Market

4%

6

Finnish Equities

3.2%

7

Swiss Equities

2.4%

8

French Equities

2.2%

Individual holdings

No data available.

Management

Fund manager group

Fundsmith

Fund manager company

Fundsmith

Fund type

OEIC

Fund objective

The Company will invest in equities on a global basis. The Company's approach is to be a long-term investor in its chosen stocks. It will not adopt short-term trading strategies.

Benchmark

MSCI World

Investment style

None

Investment method

Shares

Fund manager

Name

Since

Biography

Terry Smith

01/11/2010

Terry Smith graduated in History from University College Cardiff in 1974. He worked for Barclays Bank from 1974-83 and became an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in 1976. He obtained an MBA at The Management College, Henley in 1979. He became a stockbroker with W Greenwell & Co in 1984 and was the top-rated bank analyst in London from 1984-89. In 1990 he became head of UK Company Research at UBS Phillips & Drew, a position from which he was dismissed in 1992 following the publication of his best selling book Accounting for Growth. He joined Collins Stewart shortly after, and became a director in 1996. In 2000 he became Chief Executive and led the management buy-out of Collins Stewart, which was floated on the London Stock Exchange five months later. In 2003 Collins Stewart acquired Tullett Liberty and followed this in 2004 with the acquisition of Prebon Group, creating the world's second largest inter-dealer broker. Collins Stewart and Tullett Prebon were demerged in 2006 with Terry remaining CEO of Tullett Prebon until September 2014. In 2010 he founded Fundsmith where he is CEO and CIO. In 2012 he was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to New Zealand-UK relations following the success of his campaign to commemorate the New Zealander, Air Marshal Sir Keith Park.

Compliance

IA Recognised, Reporting Fund Status, UCITS IV Compliant

Domicile

No data available.

Fund for sale in

United Kingdom

Fundsmith Equity I Acc

Initial charge-

Annual charge0.9%

Min single investment£5,000,000

Min regular saving£5,000

Available in ISANo

Ongoing charge (OCF)0.95%

Total expense ratio (TER)0.99%

Bid price-

Offer price-

Mid price364.37

CurrencyGBX

Price updated16/03/2018

TypeAccumulation

Institutional or retail classInstitutional

Domicile-

Citi codeLSX6

Fundsmith Equity I Inc

Initial charge-

Annual charge0.9%

Min single investment£5,000,000

Min regular saving£5,000

Available in ISANo

Ongoing charge (OCF)0.95%

Total expense ratio (TER)0.99%

Bid price-

Offer price-

Mid price335.94

CurrencyGBX

Price updated16/03/2018

TypeIncome

Institutional or retail classInstitutional

Domicile-

Citi codeLSX5

Fundsmith Equity R Acc

Initial charge-

Annual charge1.5%

Min single investment£1,000

Min regular saving£250

Available in ISAYes

Ongoing charge (OCF)1.54%

Total expense ratio (TER)1.59%

Bid price-

Offer price-

Mid price348.64

CurrencyGBX

Price updated16/03/2018

TypeAccumulation

Institutional or retail classRetail

Domicile-

Citi codeLSX2

Fundsmith Equity R Inc

Initial charge-

Annual charge1.5%

Min single investment£1,000

Min regular saving£250

Available in ISAYes

Ongoing charge (OCF)1.54%

Total expense ratio (TER)1.59%

Bid price-

Offer price-

Mid price334.36

CurrencyGBX

Price updated16/03/2018

TypeIncome

Institutional or retail classRetail

Domicile-

Citi codeLSX1

Fundsmith Equity T Acc

Initial charge-

Annual charge1%

Min single investment£1,000

Min regular saving£250

Available in ISAYes

Ongoing charge (OCF)1.05%

Total expense ratio (TER)1.09%

Bid price-

Offer price-

Mid price361.71

CurrencyGBX

Price updated16/03/2018

TypeAccumulation

Institutional or retail classRetail

Domicile-

Citi codeLSX3

Fundsmith Equity T Inc

Initial charge-

Annual charge1%

Min single investment£1,000

Min regular saving£250

Available in ISAYes

Ongoing charge (OCF)1.05%

Total expense ratio (TER)1.09%

Bid price-

Offer price-

Mid price335.83

CurrencyGBX

Price updated16/03/2018

TypeIncome

Institutional or retail classRetail

Domicile-

Citi codeLSX4

Data provided by

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You should be aware that prices may fall as well as rise and that the income derived can go down as well as up. When buying or selling any investment that fluctuates in price or value you may get back less than you invested. Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance.